


On Family: Spring Edition

by thechavanator



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Post Act 5, chikage unfortunately discovers he likes it here, mentions of Hisoka and August (as Chikage is inclined to do), mentions of Izumi (as Masumi is inclined to do), there is among us and uno in here because the author was STRUGGLING
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:33:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28441707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thechavanator/pseuds/thechavanator
Summary: And yet, as they stand in the moonlight, as Spring Troupe’s too-trusting leader cuts through every thread of a lie he’s spun tonight, Chikage discovers that, really, he never understood Sakuya to begin with.Or, a certain secret-agent-turned-actor finds a family again.
Relationships: Utsuki Chikage & Spring Troupe
Comments: 8
Kudos: 53





	On Family: Spring Edition

**Author's Note:**

> "Hey that's not dragon quest" It sure ain't! "Who the heck are you" Good question! I'm Chel and I just thought I was gonna be here for some cute boys and theater and now I have three husbands, nineteen kids, one cabbage and Homare (who defies all attempts at description but whom I adore anyway). Oops!
> 
> I was SUPPOSED to christen my new laptop by touching up [this piece](https://thechavanator.tumblr.com/post/636272569125847040/chels-promptcember-day-1-bond) I wrote for the beginning of what SHOULD have been a month of prompts (this thing took up like NINE PAGES in my designated drabbles document and I want to free up some space haha), but I haven't been able to set it up yet so now I'm doing that while playing dnd. Anyway! 
> 
> This entire thing was written when I believed Chikage was in my bottom lads - like, I still didn't entirely like him, I insisted on calling him "cabbage man" rather than his actual name cause I do not forgive as easily as Izumi does- but now I realize I am a fool. Chikage's great. Kind of a bastard but that's why we like him. And I think part of this realization came from trying to get myself to write "something little" in this fandom and then churning out 1.5k words about this man. (Also worth noting that this was written before Act 8 released on EN, so I had VERY little knowledge of Citron's Deal other than that he was very clearly hiding something.)
> 
> I'm still learning to write these characters so I suspect they're a little spotty here and there. (Catch me desperately trying to write around Itaru.) But hey, putting myself out there is good regardless!
> 
> (Is the timing correct? Probably not! Oops.)

Sakuya Sakuma is far too gullible, too _trusting_. April knows the type, so certain that others share their optimism and drive, and yet destined to stand alone when all is said and done.

He can see it in the way Sakuya gawks at one of Citron’s alarmingly-incorrect Zafran customs, in the way he responds to every single falsehood from April’s own mouth with the purest sense of faith, of _trust_. In the way he maintains that the show will be perfect and that April will work through his acting struggles.

He can see it in how Sakuya claims that, whatever may happen, Mankai won’t fold like it had before. (Sakuya was right, in this case, but Izumi had been missing for only a week before the two of them were found; had it not been for Decem— _Hisoka_ , it would only have been a matter of time before the company crumbled under the weight of their director’s disappearance, again.)

And yet, as they stand in the moonlight, as Spring Troupe’s too-trusting leader cuts through every thread of a lie he’s spun tonight, Chikage discovers that, really, he never understood Sakuya to begin with.

\---

From time to time, he catches Masumi’s harsh glare out of the corner of his eye. It’s far from unexpected; after all, Chikage is well aware that none of the Mankai actors actually _believed_ Izumi’s story about the Unopening Door (much less his own lie), and Masumi is known to be... _protective_ of his beloved director. It’s only surprising that Masumi hasn’t tried to fight him for Izumi’s honor or some other nonsense along those lines.

Of course, Chikage knows he could easily overpower Masumi in a fight, but there’s no fun in defeating a seventeen-year-old. If he _really_ intends on fighting one of the younger actors, Banri would be both a better match _and_ more satisfying to defeat.

“Izumi told me not to fight you.” Masumi hasn’t even removed his headphones for this conversation. “But if you hurt a hair on her head—”

Chikage chuckles, holding up his hands in mock surrender. “Believe me, I treated her with the utmost care.”

Masumi removes his headphones, which likely means Chikage should anticipate a fight. “She’s not yours to treat.” He sighs. “But she trusts you. And Sakuya trusts you. So I guess…” He trails off for a moment; Masumi has never seemed to be the best with words, so Chikage suspects he’s trying to choose them carefully. “We’re...family. So I should trust you.” The headphones return to his ears, and Chikage can just make out the too-loud music filtering through them.

He knows Masumi shouldn’t trust him. None of them should. Truth be told, he should have left long ago, before he could put them in harm’s way. But he feels...strangely flattered, all the same.

\---

Chikage is well-aware that his sleep schedule is, as the more crass actors would say, “utterly fucked,” but by this point he’s more than used to being up at all hours of the night. Besides, his work week is over, and he can afford to oversleep for one morning.

And yet, he’ll _never_ be used to Tsuzuru’s tragic excuse for a sleep schedule. The playwright is still (mostly) wide-awake, even at two am, laptop keyboard clacking faster than Chikage can follow. It suddenly stops as Tsuzuru shoves the laptop off his lap, muffling a groan as he stumbles into the kitchen to grab his fifth coffee of the night.

It’s a shame that Chikage’s been in almost this exact situation—albeit with less-creative writing, generally consisting of mission reports or, more boringly, marketing reports—because he would greatly prefer to force Tsuzuru to bed. (Goodness, when did he grow so fond of these children (and Itaru)?)

“Chikage-san,” Tsuzuru mumbles around a mouthful of coffee and whatever energy-boosting snacks he managed to scrounge from the kitchen counter, “you’ve been to America, right?”

He nods, mind already buzzing with false tidbits to cover up his _real_ reason for being there. “Yes, of course. The office I visited was—”

Tsuzuru sighs, cutting off Chikage entirely. “Don’t bother, I can already tell you’re lying. Man, I thought when you joined I’d have someone to _help_ me keep the rest of them in line...”

 _“Joking,”_ Chikage corrects. “And here I was, with a thrilling tale of the orange beast I’d bested with my own two hands…”

 _That_ manages to wrestle a grin out of their sleep-deprived playwright. “That _does_ sound like good material. Now, who in Autumn troupe would be the least opposed to wearing a monster suit…”

“I suspect,” Chikage replies, “that Yuki would love to make _any_ of them wear something ridiculous.”

It’s strange. He feels...oddly at ease, in a way he hasn’t truly felt in a long time.

\---

To tell the truth (for once), he’d only really begun speaking with Itaru to find some way to infiltrate Mankai, to make Dec— _Hisoka_ pay for August’s death. His decision to move into his dorm room was solely a means to that end, and he knows Itaru had accepted his offer for a similar reason.

And yet, despite the knowledge that Chikage _certainly_ has a place to live outside of Mankai, and despite Itaru’s frequent protests that Chikage’s presence (business trips aside) are affecting his gaming time, Itaru never brings it up. And, perhaps even stranger, Chikage doesn’t particularly feel the _need_ to leave.

Which, perhaps, leads into the current moment: Itaru shoving his phone into Chikage’s face.

“You lie to us half the time anyway, and most of the company still buys into it.” Chikage watches a batch of colorful cartoonish spacemen float on the screen as he listens to Itaru. “If you get imposter, gg, it’s over for them.”

Leave it to Itaru to try to convert Chikage into a gamer. And, it seems, refusing to take no for an answer, since whenever he tries to move, Itaru’s hand follows. “I suppose one round wouldn’t hurt.”

Itaru passes the phone into his hand wordlessly before settling in front of his monitor, donning his headset and returning to whatever it is he spends his nights playing. (Chikage cannot for the life of him retain the name.) They settle into...not silence, given that Itaru has taken to whisper-shouting obscenities whenever his enemies (or teammates, perhaps?) end up making his progress harder, as Chikage attempts to figure out this game.

It’s comfortable. Oddly comfortable. And when Itaru’s monitor briefly goes dark just as Chikage’s masterful imposter gambit goes off without a hitch, he just manages to catch a peculiar grin on his roommate’s face.

\---

Of all of Mankai, of all of _Spring Troupe,_ Chikage truly hadn’t expected Citron to be the one most similar to him.

“No, no! In my country the law says that you must say Uno with _two_ cards left!” Citron shouts as Tsuzuru holds his head in his hands, already having accepted the loss of his sanity (and this particular card game) at only three PM.

“So annoying…” Masumi mumbles, adjusting his headphones and upping the volume through his phone.

Sakuya’s eyes shine, and Chikage would have thought he had bought it hook, line and sinker had he not seen firsthand that Sakuya is _far_ more perceptive than he lets on.

“Wow, Citron, they really made that a law?”

Oh, no, he _had_ bought it.

“They can’t change card game rules via _law,_ Sakuya,” Tsuzuru mumbles. “Besides, Zafran law doesn’t apply here in Japan.”

“They certainly can,” Chikage replies, a mischievous grin crossing his face as he watches Tsuzuru malfunction even further.

“Ah, yes! Chikage sets it!”

“ _Gets_ it,” Tsuzuru sighs.

Citron wraps Chikage in a hug, and once upon a time, several months ago, this would have set _all_ of his nerves on edge. But now, now he feels that same odd sense of contentment.

It’s strange how much Mankai already seems to have changed him.

\---

“Chikage?”

He tears his eyes away from his work, watching Sakuya walk into the lounge, rubbing his tired eyes. It’s unlike Sakuya to be up so late…

“I couldn’t sleep,” he says, as if answering Chikage’s thoughts. “I was just thinking…”

He glances up at Chikage, fussing with his sleeves. “Remember when you tried to leave that night, during Oz?” He waits for Chikage’s answering nod before he continues. “Do you still want to leave?”

There’s a note of heartbreak in his voice, one that Chikage recognizes from his own heartbreak at August’s death, and _that,_ of all things, finally makes something click in Chikage’s head. That feeling, that contentedness, that sense of _belonging..._ it’s the same one he’d felt when it had been just April and August and December, their own little family.

Mankai, Spring Troupe...they’re not the Organization, they’re not August, they’re not the family he lost...but truth be told, Chikage really isn’t April anymore, not the April he _was,_ at any rate. They’re not a replacement, they’re something else entirely. A second family.

“I think I’ll stay with Mankai,” he tells Sakuya, and the resulting grin, again, isn’t August’s, but the surge of warmth in his heart is still familiar.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: thechavanator (fandom mishmash)  
> twitter: dqChellion (fandom rambling)  
> discord: Chel!#2061
> 
> I dunno how often I'm gonna be posting stuff in this fandom, tbh; again, still learning, and new fandoms are always a bit scary! But I do very much love these characters, so I WHOLLY intend on posting more at SOME point.


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